As we settle into the fall semester, I’d like to thank all of you for your dedication and ongoing efforts on behalf of Weill Cornell Medicine. Our institution is in a strong place, as we continue to innovate, grow, and implement our strategic plans. I am proud of the many ways that together we have advanced in our mission to care, discover, and teach, and I look forward to seeing this momentum build through the rest of the year and beyond.
- To date, we have raised more than $911 million toward the “We’re Changing Medicine” campaign goal of $1.5 billion. This ambitious campaign will help us to expand our impact around the globe, set a new standard for the development of life-saving treatments, deliver equitable and evidence-based care, and continue our ground-breaking research.
- This semester we were delighted to welcome 106 new medical students, 67 PhD students, and 196 Master’s students to our community. The incoming class included the first four students to enroll in our new, interdisciplinary Master of Science in Biomedical Imaging Program. It also extends to Houston Methodist Academic Institute, where the second cohort of PhD students entered Weill Cornell Graduate School’s Physiology, Biophysics, and Systems Biology program.
- Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar was joined by 49 new medical students, 51 pre-medical students, and 24 high school graduates in the Foundation program, which prepares individuals for the integrated Six-Year Medical Program.
- We are thrilled to have Dr. Jedd Wolchok, a renowned researcher in melanoma and immunotherapy, as the new Meyer Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center. Dr. Wolchok will lead our multidisciplinary research and clinical enterprise in cancer and enhance our efforts in cancer care at our Upper East Side location, Brooklyn, and Queens.
- Our investigators continue to demonstrate their ingenuity and drive toward innovation, winning grants to achieve a 12% increase in sponsored research funding in 2022 compared to the previous year. We recently received our largest federal award ever, a $61.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue funding of the Clinical and Translational Science Center. Faculty are also expanding a cutting-edge patient data network in New York, studying emerging technologies for older adults, and building additional expertise in tuberculosis research, to mention a few examples.
- Our clinicians are striving to improve patient health through telemedicine, by enhancing treatments for conditions ranging from heart failure to road traffic injuries, and by providing guidance to the public on COVID-19, monkeypox, and many other topics. Their expertise fueled a terrific 12% increase in revenues from clinical activities in 2022, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
Throughout my time as dean, and especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been an incredible privilege to see our students, faculty, and staff confront new challenges, collaborate with colleagues, and surpass even their own expectations. Weill Cornell Medicine is truly a remarkable place, and I thank each and every one of you for your ongoing efforts to make it even better for the future.
Sincerely,
Augustine M.K. Choi, MD
Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean
Weill Cornell Medicine
Provost for Medical Affairs
Cornell University